Tiles made of various material (stone, ceramic, glass, polymers, etc.) have been used for a wide variety of purposes over many millennia, including in roofs, walls and floors. Those used for flooring must be able to durably support the weight of materials (furniture, boxes, etc.) and people walking on them without shifting or cracking. Improvements over the basic flat polygonal plate construction of floor tiles continue to be made, for example to provide interlocking features, adhesive-less installation, noise reduction and the like.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,815,370 to Reichwein et al. describes a resilient floor tile whose backing has an array of annular projections with concave surfaces. The resilience of the array creates a vacuum in the blind passageways that increase friction with the underlying surface sufficiently to hold the tiles in place without need for adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,397,466 to Jenkins et al. describes a polymer tile for outdoor use with multi-level lattices that provide drainage from the top surface. It is also characterized by a loop and pin connector arrangement for interlocking the tiles together.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,124,210 to Kim describes a metal mosaic tile having concave parts on the back that mitigate noise or vibration while still being of high strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,368 to Matthews describes ‘pliable’ concrete tiles with a diagonal ridge with narrow inverted-V cross-sectional shape. This allows the tile to deform when pressure is applied so that the tile resists shear forces when used in construction on false floors.